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GSS Press | July 2016 1

July 2016

GSS PressGroup Securities Services Monthly

To those who joined us at NeMa in Dub-rovnik, Croatia’s attractiveness for holiday makers could not go unnoticed. No won-der that tourism contributes nearly one fifth to the country’s economy. Different from other popular vacation spots that are suffe-ring from security concerns, the number of visitors to the coast from Istria to Dalmatia is still growing. The landscape of politics, though, has ap-peared rather rough lately, with the ruling coalition breaking up eventually. I guess it has a touch of irony that the Croatian ove-rall economy has assumed a sound growth pattern at the same time.

Many issues of this publication have repor-ted about the emerge of SEE Link, a com-mon platform of regional bourses whose

This document is intended forinstitutional investors only.

In this issue

AT A GLANCE Croatia Hot summer in politics 2 TALKING POINTIvana Gažic CEO of Zagreb Stock Exchange 4 Damir Grbavac CEO of Raiffeisen Pension Funds 6 BEHIND THE SCENES 8 MARKET ROUNDUP 9

DID YOU KNOW? 11

CONTACT US 12 IMPRINT & DISCLAIMER 13

ATTILA‘S PHOTO BLOG EVENTS 14

approach is pretty similar to RBI’s Opera-tion Center. Ivana Gažic, CEO of the Za-greb Stock Exchange as one of SEE Link’s founding members, gave GSS Press an up-date of the latest developments.

As far as the domestic capital market is con-cerned, the Croatian pension funds play a pivotal role as market participants but also as investors in the current privatization pro-jects. Find out more about this close connec-tion from our interview with Damir Grbavac, CEO of Raiffeisen Pension Funds.

Kind regards,

Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy Executive DirectorHead of Group Securities Services

Back in the black

Croatia

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AT A GLANCE

After the break-up of the governing coalition, Croats will go to the polls again. Ignoring the turmoil in politics, the Croatian real economy has returned to a growth pattern.

Parliamentary elections in Croatia held last November have made the political si-tuation in Croatia more complicated. “Do-moljubna koalicija” (Patriotic coalition), headed by HDZ, the biggest parliament party in Croatia, gained 59 out of 151 mandates and came out winner in relative terms. The governing party’s (SDP) coali-tion, won 56 mandates; so none of them was strong enough to form a government independently.

The third place went to MOST (Bridge), an independent list composed mostly of local mayors from various Croatian ci-ties. MOST initially had intended to form a government together with HDZ’s and SDP’s coalition but failed to do so as the two major parties wouldn’t agree. Finally, in January, after long and exhausting ne-gotiations MOST entered a partnership with HDZ and “Domoljubna koalicija” forming the new government. On the proposal of HDZ, Tihomir Orešković a Croatian-rooted Canadian independent businessman with years of experience in international pharmaceutical companies, became prime minister. The two vice pre-sident posts were distributed between To-mislav Karamarko, president of HDZ, and Božo Petrov, president of MOST.

Alas, this arrangement didn’t last for long. 6 months later, the partnership fell apart and the parliament in a no confidence vote sacked the prime minister (again based on HDZ’s proposal). After that, HDZ tried

to collect enough mandates to form ano-ther coalition and a new government but failed. In consequence, Mr. Karamarko re-signed from his post as president of HDZ. As a result, we will have new elections on 11 September 2016.

Back to growthThe political situation certainly took its toll on the Croatian financial market. When in May the government tried to issue a new government Eurobond and went on a roadshow to check out the interest of investors in Germany and UK, they rea-lized that due to political instability in Cro-atia investors would demand much higher yields than assumed by the government. So the issue was cancelled. For now, this is not a critical situation but considering that next year three government bonds are going to mature, the future government will have to tackle this as a top priority.

The shape of the Croatian economy lucki-ly does not follow the negative dispositi-on of the political scene. Croatian GDP increased by 2.7% in the first quarter of 2016, mainly due to continued growth

in the value of goods exports (9.4%) and further recovery in private consumption. This is the sixth consecutive quarter show-ing GDP growth in Croatia.

A lot is expected from tourism this year so the positive effects on the GDP will follow with possible growth rates between 1% and 2%.

The former government tried to reduce pu-blic debt by initiating the privatization of 54 state-owned companies, and was try-ing to find a consultant which would make an independent evaluation of the portfo-lios of the respective companies ahead of their sell-off. Also, there were talks about a swap with pension funds, by which the government planned to swap its stake in state-owned companies with government bonds in pension funds’ portfolios, thus reducing public debt. The privatization efforts also targeted Croatian pension funds. Beside the sale of Končar Electrical Industry (KOEI), exclusively offered to pen-sion funds, all other decisions have been postponed due to political situation.

CROATIAHot summer in politics


TALKING POINT

Capital market is developingLast year the Croatian CSD (SKDD d.d.) founded SKDD-CCP, which will be the cen-tral counterparty and provide contractual settlement services. After several delays the SKDD-CCP is scheduled to go live be-fore the end of 2016.

The Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) bought Ljubljana Stock Exchange in 2015 and is trying to attract foreign investors on a regional level. ZSE, along with the Mace-donian and Bulgarian Stock Exchanges, started the SEE link project with the aim to create a regional infrastructure for trading of securities listed on those three markets. In the meantime, the project has raised a lot of interest and more and more markets are planning to join it (for now at least eight markets), so that SEE Link should have a positive impact on volumes on ZSE and other regional markets.

On ZSE we are still witnessing small volumes, but the performance of ZSE’s main index CROBEX is getting better, and by the time we are writing this article it was +3,26%. The two best performing indices on the Zagreb Stock Exchange in 2016 were CROBEXindustrija surging 11.05% and CROBEXturist up 9.82% in 2016.

Although the outcome of the upcoming elections for Croatia is uncertain, we belie-ve that the political situation will stabilize, creating a foundation for further economic growth and boosting the development of the capital market by the (inevitable) pri-vatization of state-owned companies.


TALKING POINT

Ms. Gažic, it is evident that the ZSE is focu-sing on the region in an attempt to became a regional leader. Can you share with us the underlying business strategy?Consolidation is inevitable in the stock ex-change industry, be it through acquisitions and mergers or otherwise. Last year the Zagreb Stock Exchange went both direc-tions: we have acquired Ljubljana Stock Ex-change by taking over 100% of its shares from the CEE Stock Exchange Group at the very end of 2015. Since the Zagreb and the Ljubljana Stock Exchanges share com-parable development paths and financial system frameworks, with both countries’ capital markets in similar development stages, structures as well as potential, it is expected that the acquisition will yield po-sitive effects for both exchanges and both capital markets, while bearing numerous synergies.

SEE Link is another way of regional con-solidation. The project initiated by the Bulgarian, Macedonian and Zagreb stock exchanges with the objective of creating a regional infrastructure for trading of securi-ties listed on those three markets is suppor-ted by the EBRD. The idea behind this cross border initiative is to integrate regional equity markets without any merger or cor-porate integration, using only technology that will enable participating stock exchan-ges to remain independent yet complement each other. It will allow investors an easier and more efficient approach to those mar-kets through a local broker.

The Zagreb Stock Exchange strongly sup-ports this capital markets union initiative, since Croatia has a great need to mobilize capital, to create more investment opportu-nities for investors and to widen the funding

possibilities at lower costs for companies. Our future efforts will address that issue.

SEE Link is moving forward and interest is remarkable. Can you comment on the cur-rent status?In order to give the whole project the for-mal framework necessary for successful realization, the founding stock exchanges have established the SEE Link company in May 2104, based in Macedona, with the three exchanges holding an equal share. The order routing system has become ope-rational at the end of March this year, and in April two SEE Link indices were introdu-ced. SEE LinX and SEE LinXEWI are compo-sed of the 10 most actively traded regional companies listed on the three founding ex-changes.

The project is growing rapidly in terms of its member exchanges: besides three foun-ding exchanges, five more stock exchan-ges applied for membership – Belgrade, Ljubljana, Banja Luka, Athens and Mon-tenegro. Other regional exchanges have also expressed their interest and Bucharest intends to submit an application later this year. A total of 27 investment companies (brokerage houses) are now eligible to trade via SEE Link.

Can you explain in short, how this plat-form works in practice? Do brokers from different countries have to sign inter-broker agreements in order to trade on foreign markets under the SEE Link umbrella? Are investors able to trade all securities from SEE Link member markets in the same man-ner as they would trade securities from a local market? SEE Link offers easy and cost-efficient ac-cess to a bigger market and a larger liqui-

dity pool: it has a combined equity mar-ket capitalization of USD 30 bn, allowing order routing of almost 400 stocks listed on the three founding bourses. SEE Link represents the order routing system in the background while brokers use the front-end of the system to enter orders.

Brokerage houses that are SEE Link mem-bers have inter-broker agreements with counterparts in the market that they want to trade with. Both exchanges and bro-kers connect through this protocol. There is also a gate through which brokerages can place orders without any need to use fix to make any investment into their brokerage applications. Local members will enhance their range of products and sales and we intend to provide assistance to members free of charge for two year grants for es-

Always on the goThe Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) is a driver of the current regional developments. CEO Ivana Gažić talks to GSS Press about the issues that keep her busy.

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TALKING POINT

tablishing their applications. Moreover, we offer our members free access to the SEE Link platform for at least two years and free distribution of data on their target markets for at least two years.

Are there any obstacles to a further expan-sion of the SEE Link project?Or next goal is to increase the trading ac-tivity through SEE Link. An important step in this respect is to speed up the process of connecting brokers who are already SEE Link members but have not yet signed inter-broker agreements with their partners in other countries. We are working intensively on that and we believe in the success of this process. The exchanges are supposed to be the main drivers of this process, but a big operational portion of the work has to be done by the members.

Post-trade settlement is another challenge, as it creates obstacles for trades to be settled fast and at low cost. Consolidation in this area would be the next important and major step of SEE Link. We, as a team, are exami-ning different options how to get there.

The Croatian capital market for its part is stagnating, the capital gains tax has had a negative impact on trades and volumes, the current political situation does not help. When will we see better days on the local stock market? Over the last five years the Zagreb Stock Exchange has introduced some significant novelties to the domestic capital markets: market making and structured products tra-ding have been established, a multilateral trading facility has started operating, eight new indices were introduced and we be-gan issuing LEI codes. The Zagreb Stock Exchange established an Investor Relation Award for listed companies as well as the Zagreb Stock Exchange Annual Awards. With the support of the EBRD, we found-ed the Zagreb Stock Exchange Academy in 2010, which has had more than 4,000 students so far.

Pushing the consolidation process inclu-ding the acquisition of LJSE and the start of the SEE Link project are also parts of our ef-forts to strengthen the domestic capital mar-ket. However, we share some hurdles with our regional peers such as reluctance of governments when it comes to developing the local capital markets. More quality investment projects would certainly contri-bute to the dynamics of the capital market and to the overall economic growth.

Do you have any information on what we can expect in regard to privatization of state-owned companies through the stock exchange? There are talks about the LNG terminal etc. Much information has been circulating recently, but the current unstable political situation has slowed down the process. We hope that things will soon stabilize and that investment plans will get more attention.

Where do you see the Croatian market in the next few years?Throughout all these years of crisis, the Zagreb Stock Exchange has not only kept the pace but, to a large extent, created capital market trends in the region, and is continuously working on raising awa-reness among market participants about the importance of a liquid and transparent stock market to the overall economy. In the future, we will put more stress on strengthe-ning the capabilities of our region’s SMEs to finance their business development with the help of the capital markets.

If the importance of the capital market in Croatia was recognized in a broader con-text, not only among market participants, it would provide an opportunity to show its true purpose, that is to be a generator of growth and economic development of the country. When that time has come, which hopefully will be soon, we will be ready.


TALKING POINT

Mr. Grbavac, could you briefly describe the pension system?The pension system in Croatia has gone through significant changes since the end of the last century. The reforms started with changes in the first pillar by extending the working age, discouraging early retirement. But the most important novelty was to intro-duce pension pillars based on individually capitalized accounts in pension funds ma-naged by specialized private entities.

Today we have a 3-pillar system. Three quarters of mandatory pension contribu-tions go to the basic pay as you go. In addition to that, we have mandatory pen-sion funds as a second pillar, receiving the remaining quarter, and voluntary pension funds funded by members and additional employers’ contributions on voluntary basis with the aim of providing supplementary pensions.

At the very beginning, this system was supposed to be even more ambitious with regard to developing a second pillar, but for various social and political reasons, not everything has materialized as planned. I would like to emphasize that all calculati-ons show that 1 kuna (HRK) paid into se-cond pillar brings a much higher pension effect than the same amount allocated to the public pension system.In the mandatory second pillar, life cycle portfolios were set up in 2014.

The average annual yield since the launch of the RMPF obligatory fund is 5.75% des-pite the situation on the capital market and a weak Croatian economy. What is behind your successful performance? We have managed to achieve our perfor-mance in a low inflation environment, so

our long term real return of our mandato-ry pension fund (the only one till 2014) has been 3.7 %. This is much better than expected at the beginning of the pension reform. There is no secret about it; we are managing our portfolio according to best industry standards and with a rather con-servative investment policy. Following our asset allocation, the major contributors to the returns are Croatian government bonds and foreign equities.

Can you briefly explain the basic invest-ment limits for pension fund? What drives RMPF’s investment decisions? We had rather strict quantitative limits at the start, but they have been liberalized with the latest changes in legislation. In the mandatory second pillar the limits depend on the fund’s risk category, having in mind that each pension fund managing compa-ny is obliged to offer its members a choice of three funds with different risk profiles.

In that sense, the riskiest fund category can accumulate up to 55% of its assets in equities and minimum 40% in domestically issued instruments. The medium risk type holds up to 35% in equities and minimum 60 % in domestic issues, while the most conservative fund would go without equi-ties and allocate to 90% domestic securiti-es instead. In our present portfolio structure category B is by far the largest one, with a large portion of domestic fixed income. It is a result of the previous quantitative limits as well as the limited offer on the domestic market. But we are investing internationally as well, first of all in equities, having in mind the low interest rate environment in Europe, and we’ll continue to do so in the future. At the same time, we continue to look for favorable domestic opportunities.

Beside the first two pillars you have just de-scribed, there is a third pillar, based on vo-luntary pension savings. What is the future of such savings in Croatia?

Resting on three pillars Damir Grbavac, CEO of Raiffeisen Pension Funds in Croatia, talks to GSS Press about market conditions and business prospects.


TALKING POINT

Raiffeisen Group was the first to launch a voluntary pension fund in Croatia and since then, we have invested a lot of efforts in developing this business line. We are the No. 2 on the market in that segment, but here it is not about defeating the compe-tition, but to capture the large part of the uncovered market, considering that today one out of 6.5 second pillar members are utilizing the third pillar. So, the present relative weakness of this business can be treated as a chance to grow.

The development of dedicated pension savings will, to a great extent, depend on improving the financial literacy of our population and on creating awareness for the necessity of additional savings for re-tirement. The living standard and the the overall prospects for Croatian citizens are playing a role as well, considering there is a large part of the population who have no possibility to save at all.

Some countries have nationalized their pension system and similar proposals cir-culate in Croatia. Are such debates har-ming your business?They may create some confusion in the public including our members, but they haven’t jeopardized the business itself so far. The reform of the pension system was one of not many successful reforms in

Croatia and people are starting to see the balances on their pension fund accounts as their personally earned property which they wouldn’t like to lose. Countries which have undergone such an exercise had a short-term budgetary effect in mind, while risking long-term negative consequences.

We are witnessing the privatization of com-panies offered primarily to pension funds, for example Koncar electrical industry (KOEI), in which ROMF has participated, or the privatization of Croatian Motorways. Are there more projects of this kind in the pipeline?We do examine such opportunities accor-ding to our investment criteria and in the best interest of our members and portfolios. At the end, our participation in the Končar privatization was almost symbolic. We also looked into the monetization of Croa-tian Motorways, so far without making any final commitments as we are still waiting for a number of open issues to be clarified.

In my opinion, however, the Government’s decision to withdraw the project was not good, first of all for the country and its pu-blic debt. Moreover, it might have been a good opportunity for pension funds. Yes, we shall look at all such opportunities and evaluate them, but this does not mean that we’ll participate in each of them.

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About RMFRaiffeisen Mandatory and Voluntary Pension Funds Management Company Plc. (short: Raiffeisen Pension Funds or RMF) has been operating in Croatia since 14 years. RMF manages one obligatory and seven voluntary pension funds. The market share exceeds 30%.


BEHIND THE SCENES

This year’s Network Management Forum, NeMa, took place in Dubrovnik for the third time since the beginning of its 16 ye-ars old history. Core industry leaders and supporters, representing brokers, global custodians, agent banks, regulators, ex-changes, CCPs, CSDs and technology pro-viders gathered in an informal scenery in this picturesque town on the Mediterranean Sea, to discuss the present and future chal-lenges and goals of the securities services.

Raiffeisen Bank International was proud to support this event.

NeMa the business node

Pictures: NeMa 2016 https://finance.knect365.com/


MARKET ROUNDUP

Spotlight news

BG: Ruling on offshore ownership in financial institutionsThe Bulgarian Parliament adopted a decision according to which off-shore companies can own up to 10% of the capital of banks, insu-rance and pension companies and collective investment undertakings.

The amendments were incorporated in the Law on Companies Registe-red in Jurisdictions with Preferential Tax Regime. The new text introduces the requirement to disclose the actu-al owners of an offshore company when it directly or indirectly partici-pates in the capital of a bank, in-surance company or pension fund. The changes become effective as of July.

BG: EXTRI upgrade The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) announced that its enhanced IT platform EXTRI will be used by local banks to disclose information to BSE related activities performed in their capacity as trustee bank of bond-holders.

The new service of BSE’s EXTRI plat-form is aiming to improve the infra-structure of the Bulgarian Capital Market, by making it more secure and environmentally friendly.

Trustee banks have to officially regis-ter their authorized representatives by user name and universal electro-nic signature. The registration needs to be accompanied by a power of attorney document for representing the bank before BSE, and by a list of issues for which the bank is acting as a trustee of bondholders.

BULGARIAMaria Lazova, Head of GSS Bulgaria

National Corporate Governance Code at OECD standards

The National Corporate Governance Committee published amendments to the National Corporate Governance Code. They follow the Principles of corporate governance of the OECD set out in the OECD Report to Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in September 2015.

The changes are related to: • avoiding conflicts of interest between corporate management

and the company; • improving transparency by adopting rules on the disclosure of periodic and ad-hoc

information; • expanding the scope of the Code so as to include the activities of companies that keep

and manage portfolios of and on behalf of clients (institutional investors, trustees, cus-todians);

• improving protection of shareholders' rights in public companies by institutional inves-tors, trustees and custodians;

• shareholders rights protection in international cross-listing; • extending the scope of the Code to include regulated markets, where a company is

traded on more than one such market and to provide relevant market information to shareholders.

BNB presents its future projects On the occasion of the Innovations Financial Forum held in Sofia in June, the Deputy Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) outlined the recent and short-term pro-jects related to the listing of government securities on the regulated market, on the deve-lopment of payments services, and on regulations in the financial sector. Below are the key projects presented in the speech:• Admission of domestic government securities to the regulated market, specifically on the

Bulgarian Stock Exchange-Sofia (BSE-Sofia) and on Bloomberg’s E-Bond application. This measure is expected to be implemented by the end of 2017. It will allow financial institutions to choose where to trade government debt, namely on the BSE-Sofia, Bloom-berg or OTC. In this way, Bulgaria aims to meet the requirements of EU Regulation 2015/61 concerning liquidity coverage requirement for credit institutions.

• It will become mandatory to use the SEPA format with ISO 20022 XML standard for all credit transfers and direct debits in EUR and the use of BIC codes will no longer be required for these transactions. The deadline for implementation is 31 October 2016.

• In light of forthcoming changes to the Foreign Exchange Law and BNB Regulation 27 on the balance of payment statistics, BNB plans to remove the requirement for payment ser-vice providers to report transactions and payments between residents and non-resident entities, as well as cross-border transfers of over BGN 100,000 by the end of July 2016.


MARKET ROUNDUP

Working towards meeting CSDR requirements

The KDPW Group, the owner of the Polish Central Securities De-positary (KDPW), a Central Counterparty (KDPW_CCP) and a transactions repository (KDPW_TR), has recently issued an update on the progress of their CSDR project and the necessary system adjustments that have to be implemented by both the CSD and its participants. The upcoming system changes are designed to meet the require-ments stipulated by the European CSD Regulation. A large part of the project relates to the rules around the settlement discipline

(art. 6 and 7 of CSDR), in particular affecting the buy-in procedures, the late settlement fees, securities valuation and monitoring of timely settlement. However, other changes in connection with, among others, instructions matching, hold and release mechanism, partial settlement, tolerance levels, usage of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) codes, settlement instruction recycling, and maintenance of the NKK (client classification numbers for the derivatives market) database by the CCP only will take place too.

KDPW has announced two implementation waves of the system changes:1. The first implementation wave, scheduled for the spring 2017 window, as described in

KDPW’s most recent announcement, will include:a. Adjustments in processing of conditional repo and sell/buy-back operations, where two

separate instructions for position opening and closing will be required from KDPW’s participant, as opposed to KDPW generating the position closing instruction based on the opening instruction*;

b. Changes around instruction matching where more types of operations requiring mat-ching have been added in KDPW’s rules (e.g. position transfers)*;

c. Changes to kdpw_stream’s xml communications structure, amending messages concer-ning the following:

• Implementation of a new “place of clearing” field in settlement instructions (where its completion will be obligatory from 2018);

• Introduction of a possibility to express the volume of fixed income securities in face/nomi-nal value terms, as opposed to a number of units (subject to issuer’s terms);

• Extension of the fields for determination of the number of securities and their value;• Change to the rules around repo transactions servicing (removal of the requirement to

indicate the type of a repo transaction);• Introduction of a new version of communications for opening up new settlement accounts.

2. The second implementation wave, scheduled for 2018, is expected to include the other

necessary system changes. More details will be released at a later stage.

* changes described in points a) and b) will not apply to transactions and other operations carried out between banks and the National Bank of Poland.

Our viewThe developments are aimed at aligning KDPW’s processes with the CSDR’s requirements which, in turn, have been adopted in order to harmonize the services and streamline the settlement processes of Central Securities Depositories across Europe.

Spotlight news

RO: Stock exchange merger talks Subsequent to the approval from shareholders meeting of the Bucha-rest Stock Exchange (BSE) held in April, negotiations with the Sibiu Stock Exchange (Sibex) over a po-tential merger commenced. The BSE Board of Directors was mandated to prepare a merger by absorption between the BSE, as ab-sorbing entity, and Sibex as the ab-sorbed company. In the meantime, the two exchanges announced the conclusion of a coordination agree-ment, allowing the implementation of critical elements for the merger process.

According to the BSE, experts of the two involved companies estab-lished the principles and conditions for the collaboration, including cost distribution and an action plan. The schedule to be followed by the two exchanges builds the fundamentals of a potential merger.

Ludwik Sobolewski, BSE’s CEO, stated that the absorption of Sibex may lead to an enhanced market infrastructure, to the benefit of BSE’s stakeholders. Sibex CEO Ovidiu Pe-tru expressed his confidence that the project will meet the expectations of both shareholders and market parti-cipants for a consolidated and stron-ger exchange.

POLANDAnna Lewczuk Sales & Relationship Manager, GSS Poland


1. Which of the following inventions and discoveries are Croatian?a) Parachuteb) Tie (German: Krawatte, French: cravate)c) Torpedod) Alternating currente) Pen

2. How many sunny hours per year does Hvar island count, on average?a) 3,053b) 2,726c) 2,052

3. What is the shortest river in the world?a) Roe River, USAb) Azuis River, Brazilc) Tamborasi River, Indonesiad) Ombla River, Croatia

4. Which of the following locations has not served as set for Game of Thrones?a) Dubrovnik, Croatiab) Cordoba, Spainc) Hardangervidda National Park, Norwayd) Marrakech, Morocco

5. How many islands belong to Croatia?a) 246b) 546c) 846d) 1246

DID YOU KNOW?

How sophisticated is your knowledge of Croatia?

GSS Press challenges its readers over a few important topics.

Answers:

1. a-eAll of them are attributable to Croats.

2. b Island Hvar carries the flattery title of the sunniest Croatian island with 2,726 sunny hours per year on average. In 2003 the maximum was reached with 3,053 hours. The European average, in comparison, is approx. 2,100 hours of sunshine.

3. d Ombla's course is approximately 30 m long, and it empties into the Rijeka Dubrovačka embayment of the Adriatic Sea. Until recently it was incorrectly believed that Roe River in the state of Montana, whose length is 30 to 60 m depending on the season, was the shortest river in the world.

4. c The shooting of the Night’s Watch expedition to the frozen lands beyond the Wall, took place at national parks in Iceland, to film on glaciers.

5. d Croatia has 1,246 islands, but only 50 of them are inhabited.


CONTACT US

GSS Central TeamRaiffeisen Bank International AGAm Stadtpark 91030 Vienna, Austriawww.rbinternational.comAttila Szalay-BerzeviczyHead of [email protected]: +43 1 71707-8252Jürgen SattlerHead of GSS Regional [email protected]: +43 1 71707-1882Bettina JanoschekHead of GSS Sales & Relationship [email protected]: +43 1 71707-1820

AustriaRaiffeisen Bank International AGAm Stadtpark 91030 Vienna, AustriaAnita FröchHead of GSS [email protected]: +43 1 71707-3040www.rbinternational.com

AlbaniaRaiffeisen Bank Sh.a.“European Trade Center”Bulevardi “Bajram Curri” TiranaMirela BoriciHead of GSS [email protected]: +355 4 2381000-1074www.raiffeisen.al

BelarusPriorbank JSC31-A, V. Khoruzhey Str.220002 MinskYury DorofeyHead of GSS [email protected]: +375 17 2899102www.priorbank.by

Bosnia and HerzegovinaRaiffeisen BANK d.d.Bosna i HercegovinaZmaja od Bosne bb71000 SarajevoDraženko BobašHead of GSS [email protected]: +387 33 287-153www.raiffeisenbank.ba

BulgariaRaiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD55, Nicola Vaptzarov Blvd., Business Center Expo 2000, 1407 SofiaMaria LazovaHead of GSS [email protected]: +359 2 91985-463www.rbb.bg

CroatiaRaiffeisenbank Austria d.d.Petrinjska 5910000 ZagrebMensur HodžicHead of GSS [email protected]: +385 1 6174-327www.rba.hr

Czech RepublicRaiffeisenbank a.s.Hvezdova 1716/2b14078 Prague 4Vit Cermák Head of GSS Czech [email protected]: +420 234 40-1481www.rb.cz

HungaryRaiffeisen Bank Zrt.Akadémia utca 61054 BudapestZsuzsanna HarasztiHead of GSS [email protected]: +361 484 4362www.raiffeisen.hu

PolandRaiffeisen Bank Polska S.A.(Raiffeisen Polbank)Piękna 20 Str.00-549 WarsawRadek IgnatowiczHead of GSS [email protected]: +48 22 585-2000www.raiffeisen.pl

RomaniaRaiffeisen Bank S.A.246C Calea Floreasca 014476 Bucharest 1Andrei MezdreaHead of GSS [email protected]: +40 21 30612-89www.raiffeisen.ro

RussiaAO RaiffeisenbankSmolenskaya-Sennaya Sq. 28119020 MoscowEvgenia KlimovaHead of GSS [email protected]: +7-495-721 9900www.raiffeisen.ru

SerbiaRaiffeisen banka a.d.Djordja Stanojevica 1611070 Novi BeogradIvana NovakovicHead of GSS [email protected]: +381 11 2207572www.raiffeisenbank.rs

SlovakiaTatra banka, a.s.Hodžovo námestie 381106 BratislavaPeter Uhrin Head of GSS [email protected] Phone: +421-2-5919 2134www.tatrabanka.sk

UkraineRaiffeisen Bank Aval JSC9, Leskova Str.01011 KievBogdana YefremovaHead of GSS [email protected] Phone: +380 44 49879 32 www.aval.ua

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Imprint

1) Information requirements pursuant to the Austrian E-Commerce Act

Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Registered Office: Am Stadtpark 9, 1030 Vienna. Postal address: 1010 Vienna, POB 50Phone: +43-1-71707-0, Fax: + 43-1-71707-1715Company Register Number: FN 122119m at the Commercial Court of ViennaVAT Identification Number: UID ATU 57531200Austrian Data Processing Register: Data processing register number (DVR): 4002771S.W.I.F.T.-Code: RZBA AT WW

Supervisory Authorities:As a credit institution pursuant to § 1 of the Austrian Banking Act, Raiffeisen Bank International AG is subject to supervision by the Financial Market Authority and the Austrian Central Bank. Further, Raiffeisen Bank International AG is subject to legal regulations (as amended from time to time), in particular the Austrian Banking Act (Bankwesengesetz) and the Securities Supervision Act (Wertpapieraufsichtsgesetz).

Membership: Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Federal Bank and Insurance Sector, Raiffeisen Association

2) Statement pursuant to the Austrian Media Act

Publisher of GSS Press: Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Am Stadtpark 9, A-1030 ViennaMedia Owner of GSS Press: Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung, Am Stadtpark 9, 1030 WienProducer: Marketing, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Am Stadtpark 9, A-1030 ViennaEditors: Jürgen Sattler, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Am Stadtpark 9, A-1030 Vienna

Society Commitee Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung:Dr. Leodegar PRUSCHAK (Chairman), Petra WALTER (Deputy Chairman), Stephan MARENT (Deputy Chairman)

Other committee members Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung:Mag. Rainer SCHNABL, Franz POSPISCHIL, Bernd NÖHRER, Mag. Maximilian EDER, Mag. Gertraud FRANK, Mag. Martin KOFLER, Markus FRIEDRICH, Katharina STÖGNER, Mag. Clemens GANTAR

Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung is a registered society. Society purpose and activities of Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung are (inter alia) a joint communication work (advertising and public relations).

Basic tendency of the content of GSS Press: GSS Press presents services and products of the Group Securities Services unit of Raiffeisen Bank International AG and its subsidiaries. Aiming at a professional audience, GSS Press reports about developments in the financial markets, with a particular focus on post-trade infrastructure. The publication is available free of charge.

Images: Photographs and illustrations provided by Raiffeisen Bank International, Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy and the organizations featured in this issue.

Disclaimer

This document has been published by Raiffeisen Bank International AG. This document is for information purposes and may not be reproduced or distributed to other persons. This document shall not be considered as financial, investment, legal or tax advice. This document constitutes neither a solicitation of an offer nor a prospectus in the sense of the Austrian Capital Market Act (KMG) or the Stock Exchange Act or any other comparable foreign law. An investment decision in respect of a security, financial product or investment must be made on the basis of an approved, published prospectus or the complete documentation for the security, financial product or investment in question, and not on the basis of this document. This document does not constitute a personal recommendation to buy or sell financial instruments in the sense of the Austrian Securities Supervision Act or any other comparable foreign law. Neither this document nor any of its components shall form the basis for any kind of contract or commitment whatsoever. This document is not a substitute for legal or tax advice or the necessary advice on the purchase or sale of a security, investment or other financial product. In respect of the sale or purchase of securities, investments or financial products, your banking advisor can provide individualised advice which is suitable for investments and financial products. This analysis is fundamentally based on generally available information and not on confidential information which the party preparing the document has obtained exclusively on the basis of his/her client relationship with a person. Unless otherwise expressly stated in this publication, the publisher deems all of the information to be reliable, but does not make any assurances regarding its accuracy and completeness. The publisher shall not have any liability for any representations (expressed or implied) regarding information contained in, or for any omissions from, this document or any other written or oral communications transmitted to the recipient in the course of its preparation. The information in this publication is current, as of the creation date of the document. It may be outdated by future developments, without the publication being changed. The data and statements contained in this document are strictly limited to the matters stated herein and shall not to be read as extending by implication to any other matter.

This document is intended for institutional investors only. Neither this document nor any part of its content may be relied upon by any other person. This document is not intended for retail/private investors. Requests resulting from this document will only be responded to, if the respective person is an institutional investor.

IMPRINT & DISCLAIMER


ATTILA‘S PHOTO BLOG

PHOTO OF THE MONTH by Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy 1 July 2016 Contalmaison/ FranceCommemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme. It became the worst day in the history of the British Army which has lost 19.000 soldiers in the first 12 hours of the offensive.

gss press · 2020-02-11 · gss press july 2016 3 talking point capital market is developing last...

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